It is need or wanting more?

Calvary Baptist Church

Not long ago I was the "proud" possessor of over 600 file folders chucked full of helpful, insightful, and weighty information that was totally meaningless.

Like the most tireless of private detectives, I searched and researched issues and subjects and amassed piles of information that I just knew I would need at a moment's notice to insert in a timely sermon to give a final word of pastoral authority.

And then I started looking recently in those files and realized how out of date or irrelevant those files had become. I made a judgment call. I concluded that I didn't need catalogs of janitorial supplies or price lists of church chairs from 1991.

I could let them go along with many other out of date files. I realized that I had become a "pastoral packrat." I couldn't help but think how often I had come across some article, magazine, catalog, or scrap of information that I should file away. "I may need that someday" I passionately thought.

It is odd how our perceptions can change as time goes by. Today if I talk to someone about a file, it is usually a computer file. Can you imagine asking someone who just awoke from a come of 20 years what version of windows they liked the best?

One thing that doesn't change, though, is our obsession to collect, hoard and store. I think that the "pastoral packrat" syndrome is not just confined to members of the clergy.

I fear that most of us have some hint of "packrat" in all of us. As I browse the tables of garage sales, flea markets and auctions, it is amazing how much we can accumulate over time.

When I see the typical collectible, I try to image that day in the store when someone looked, thought, and scrutinized before making such a significant purchase.

Maybe they took the plastic out and invoked the battle cry of modern day commerce, "charge!" Now at a garage sale, with a giant leap of faith, we affix a sticker - $5 OBO!

Jesus said something about our urge to splurge on things. In Luke 12:15 "...he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consistheth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."

Beware of covetousness is our Lord's warning. The meaning of the word has to do with being on guard against the drawing power of possessing more and more.

All of us have to be wary of the trap which possessions can bring. It is not that things are in themselves wrong, nor does it mean that to be spiritual our world has to be dull and flat. What is does mean is that we need to keep our priorities straight.

It is OK to have things, but we must be on guard against things having us. A few years ago in our church we learned a technique of memorizing the Ten Commandments on our fingers. The tenth commandments, which is Exo 20:17, "Thou shalt not covet..." was symbolized with all ten fingers.

When we get to the place that everything about our being is about wanting more and more, and we are driven by that desire to be "chief packrat" of our little circle, something needs to change.

At that point we should have the courage to pry our fingers off possessions and remember what is more important. Solomon said many years ago in Proverbs 4:7. "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding."

To keep our getting under control we must remember to want to get understanding. I think the point Solomon is making is that the chief thing "to get" is to get the right understanding of God and make Him the priority of our life. The way that we get God is by His Son Jesus Christ.

Calvary Baptist Church, 441 Duane St., holds Sunday services at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. plus Wednesday service at 7 p.m.